Tag Archives: Awards

The Willamette Radio Workshop’s production of “The Fall of the City” will be featured on the Radio Theater Spotlight show on KBOO, 90.7 FM this Monday, October 11, at 11pm.Â WRW Director Sam A. Mowry will be in the KBOO studio, speaking with host Rascho (aka Randall Howington) via Skype about the production.Â Rolf Semprebon will engineer the session.

“The Fall of the City,” first produced in 1937 by the Columbia Workshop for CBS Radio, is a verse drama by Archibald MacLeish.Â A brilliant allegory about the rise of Fascism on the eve of the Second World War, it has a powerful resonance in our own time.Â WRW’s 2004 production is a winner of the Crystal Communicator Award.

This powerful play was produced again by the Night Kitchen Radio Theater for the opening of WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.Â Produced and directed by Sarah Montague, this production won a 2009 Gracie Award for Best Drama.Â A streaming audio can be found at the New York Festivals website.

The Willamette Radio Workshop is excited to announce that they have been honored with the Crystal Communicator Award of Excellence for our production of The Fall of the City by Archibald MacLeish. Fall of the City is a seminal piece of Radio Theater, originally presented in 1937 by the Columbia Workshop, with a cast of 200, including Orson Welles, Burgess Meredith and Paul Stewart. As The Fall of the City begins, a dead woman who has appeared in the town square for 3 days saying nothing finally speaks and she tells of the arrival of a mysterious conqueror, warning “The city of Masterless men will take a master, there will be shouting then, blood after.”

A debate ensues where the people must decide how much of their freedom they are willing to risk for a sense of security from a mysterious conqueror. The Fall of the City is a wonderful radio piece, speaking directly to the issues and political choices we face today. The timeless power of poetry and the spoken word meet in this verse drama written especially for radio by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The timely nature of this story inspired us to re-imagine the piece, using the entire script and a brilliant modern sound design by Marc Rose, we feel this is our best work to date.

The Willamette Radio Workshop is proud to announce that Cynthia McGean, the director of our Writers On the air Workshop, was awarded first place in the National Audio Theatre Festival 2004 Script contest for her piece Pandora’s Box. Set in a battered women’s shelter, Pandora’s Box explores a veteran shelter worker’s crisis of hope. First place includes the publication of the Script in NATF Script Book 2004, a scholarship to the NATF Audio Theatre Workshop in West Plains, Missouri and a cash award.

Ms. McGean’s adaptations and original scripts have frequently been featured in WRW’s season. A selection from Ms. McGean’s adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau will be highlighted during the April 22nd recording of OPB’s LiveWire radio show. The program is in conjunction with Wordstock and will be taped for broadcast on OPB TV.

Ms. McGean is a published writer whose work has been performed throughout the country. She has also worked onstage and backstage at a number of local theaters, is a longtime advocate for children’s rights and teaches third grade at Lot Whitcomb Elementary School in Milwaukie.

Details of the 2004 National Audio Theatre Festival Script Contest

First Place: Pandora’s Box, by Cynthia J. McGean

Second Place: Partakers, by D.C. Smith

Third Place: Sorry, You’ve Got My Wrong Number, by Rich Orloff

The following plays receive an Honorable Mention:

Lost in a Radio Studio, by Joy Jackson and Paul Feavel

Golden Dreams, Golden Nightmares, by Tony Palermo

Trial by Fire, by Joel Pierson

Seeing Mirrors, by Al Sjoerdsma

Winning scripts will be published in the annual NATF scriptbook, and may be considered for future production by NATF. The judges for this year’s contest were Jeffrey Adams, Icebox Radio Theater; Janine Preston, WKNH Radio Theatre, and Randy Story, NATF.

Willamette Radio Workshop is proud to announce that our resident Sound Designer, Marty Gallagher, has been awarded the Silver Medal for Sound Design for Mt. Hood Repertory Theater’s Fahrenheit 451 at this years World Stage Design competition in Toronto Canada. Check out the link for complete details about a very amazing competition.

More about Marty. Martin John Gallagher is an award-winning national musical director, computerized musical arranger and sound designer based in Portland, Oregon. He is a three-time Drammy winner, and a five-time nominee. He works in five Western states, and he’s worked with every significant theatre company in Portland. He designed the synthesizer programming for the Portland Opera’s recent production of View From a Bridge. This summer he musical directed Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella for the City of Portland at Washington Park Rose Garden using computerized sequencing to simulate the pit band (and stay within budget). He is a featured presenter and writer for The United States Institute of Theatre Technology. He was a judge and keynote speaker for first ever Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival sound design competition last year. Also, he has just released an interactive CD-ROM Wireless Microphones In the Theatre for Sound, Costume, Wig and Makeup Designers, and Production Coordinators. It is available directly from Mr. Gallagher. His educational web site about theatrical sound design is http://www.home.earthlink.net/~mjgallag.

Go and check this site out for a lot of good info concerning the business and mechanics of sound.